[fvc-wat-disc] Multi-cultural festival thoughts - part 1 - the attendees

[Jay Judkowitz]

Hi folks,

     It was great working the booth with you all.  The numbers Sharon
shared about sign-ups for the petition were amazing.  Great work, everyone.

     I was thinking about the different groups, how they differed from each
other, and how we can approach them for the best result.  I'd love your
thoughts on these observations and suggestions.

   - *People who are already sold*: These people are great.  Take no time,
   readily give their signatures, and usually provide us some form of moral
   support.  For them, our goal should be to get them to become active and to
   join one of our mail lists.  We need to make sure we give them the smallest
   possible commitment level possible and see if we can't get them hooked on
   working on this issue with us.


   - *Curious people who just never thought about it before*: These are
   actually the perfect audience.  They are curious and want to know why we
   are spending all day at a fair talking about our issue.  They generally are
   sympathetic to the question of fairness.  They like non-partisan messaging
   because they are not steeped in the history of broken promises and want a
   positive message.  To them, it's good to just say it's a risk to have 39%
   of the votes create an unassailable legislative machine because you never
   know which 39% will win.  The fact that the last two minority majorities
   were from different parties make it super easy to keep it non-partisan.
   It's possible to do this discussion without even using the name of a party
   once.


   - *People who get it, but not why it matters*: They acknowledge the
   unfairness of FPTP but don't see why they should care.  This is a tough
   crowd because we don't know what argument to give if fairness does not
   work.  Do they care more about coalition building, less dictatorial power
   of a single party leader, better representation of women and minorities, or
   having more voices and interests heard?  I think that with these people (if
   they don't just walk off), we need to ask them questions - find out what
   they care most about and see if we can relate FPTP vs. PR to their
   interests.


   - *Angry people*: These people don't need to be grabbed in - they come
   to us.  They have a gripe about the world and feel that the government is
   inherently unfair and out to screw us all.  They talk to us because they
   see us as also upset about unfairness and know we will listen.  Well,
   actually they talk AT us. They want to share their gripe and be heard but
   don't really discuss PR WITH us.  The problem is that they take our time
   and attention away from other people we want to talk to and, worse yet,
   they can scare away folks from the booth.  To top it all off, sometimes
   they don't even sign the petition because they are convinced nothing will
   ever make a difference.  For these people, we need to make a quick and
   compelling case that in spite of the inherent selfishness of people and
   parties, PR can make things better by creating checks and balances between
   the parties and create more accountability.  We can't be unrealistic in
   saying we will cause better people to be elected, but rather we can create
   a better system for reigning in the worst in our leaders.  That said, if
   they don't bite quickly, it's probably best to excuse yourself to talk to
   someone who seems like they won't rant for 10 minutes or so.


   - *Apathetic people*: These people usually run away quickly and refuse
   to make eye contact.  But, sometimes their kids want to spin a wheel and
   take candy.  Maybe it's just easiest to let them go, but maybe it's
   possible to just give a quick general non-PR message that politics matters
   in general.  Sure, life is very good for very many Canadians right now, but
   there is no law of nature that says it always has to be so.  Special
   interests and actual bad people don't rest and without the vigilance of
   good and reasonable people, we can lose the precious situation we have
   here.  We won't get them to sign for PR, but maybe we can plant a seed for
   later.

     Talk to you all soon.

Best regards,
Jay
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